Chapter 12 - Mars
I’m working through an assignment on my beat-up laptop at the kitchen table, trying to make as much progress as I can in this online course while the construction site I work on is closed down due to the extreme cold snap we’ve been hit with.
I want to be more than just a guy who’s good at framing houses.
I want more… period. I can’t afford to not work full-time while I go to school, even with the cheap rent I pay in the house Torrin and I share.
High school graduation was a year and a half ago, but I’ve barely completed one semester's worth of courses online at night and on weekends.
I have no choice but to keep going, even if it takes me four years to complete what should be a two-year degree.
The doorbell rings, breaking my concentration, and I yank my fingers through my thick dark hair. I shove away from the table and go to the door. All the annoyance fades away when I pull it open and get pushed aside by the prettiest girl I know.
“Holy heck! It’s brutal cold out there,” Luna squeaks with a massive shiver. “Shut the door!”
I pull the door closed and turn back to her with a grin. “When did you get back?”
She tosses me a Christmas gift bag and unzips her long, puffy winter jacket and then drags the knitted toque off her head, sending waves of her red hair everywhere as static lifts it.
She bats it down in a cute way, but errant strands still float around her head like a halo.
“I made it back two days ago, right before the deep freeze hit. Thank goodness for that, because I would have been stuck in the dorms until it warmed up a bit. There’s no way I’d make that long drive when it’s this cold. ”
I rub my thumb over my bottom lip as I take in her outfit under the open jacket and then laugh. “You look like Santa’s helper!”
She’s wearing green leggings tucked into white Sorrel boots that come up to her knees and one of those dresses she likes so much in red.
She does a little spin with a wide smile and then heads back into the house to the kitchen, chattering away as she goes.
“Mrs. Santa’s helper, actually. Mom sent me out to deliver her Christmas baking to you guys and Gigi.”
She opens a cupboard to take down a glass and then fills it with water from the tap.
She turns around and sips from it while her eyes take a slow trip up and down my body.
My fingers crinkle the bag I’m holding when they flex at the approval I see in them.
Fuck, she’s dangerous to be around. I pull my gaze from her pretty green eyes and look into the bag instead.
It’s filled with metal Christmas cookie tins that I eagerly start unloading and set on the counter beside her, keeping one to open and dive into. Mrs. Bolton bakes like an angel.
As I pull out a star-shaped decorated cookie, I ask, “How’s university life? Keeping up with your classes? Making lots of new friends?” I lift my eyes back up to her and curse myself when I can’t help asking, “Got a new boyfriend?”
She sets her glass aside and leans back against the counter with her hands behind her.
The stance has her jacket opening more and I can't help but take a good, long look. Goddamn, I want to grab her around her waist and lift her onto that counter. Step between those plump thighs of hers and have them wrap around me. I shake my head when I look back up and I swear I can see a challenge in her eyes like she’s daring me to do just that.
I look away and stuff more of the cookie in my mouth.
My best friend’s sister is off fucking limits. She tosses her hair with a smirk.
“Classes are good. I love all of them so far. I’ve made a few decent friends. My roommate is awesome.”
I chew and swallow the cookie and wait for her to answer my final question. She’s such a fucking tease as she bites her bottom lip and flutters her lashes at me.
“Boys are yucky.”
She pushes off the counter and steps closer to me, snagging the cookie from my fingers and taking a tiny bite, her eyes dancing with amusement.
I clear my throat and murmur, “Yucky, huh?”
“Mmmm, I’m not really interested in boys. Now, if the right man came along… well.”
She says it in a low tone that goes straight to my dick while tapping that cookie against her sweet pink lips.
Step back! Step back! My brain is screaming at me to back away, but my body has its own ideas and I step right into her so her breasts brush against my chest. She tilts her head back to look up at me, letting me see everything she wants from me in her eyes, clearly.
My hand comes up and covers hers and I bring it to my mouth to take a bite of the cookie, my lips dragging over her fingertips.
Her eyes heat up as they focus on my mouth and that’s all I need to see to reach for her hip.
My fingers barely brush her curves when the front door opens and Torrin barges in, stomping snow off his boots and bitching about the cold. Both of us spring away from each other and I can feel my sanity start to return. I’m half grateful, half furious that we were interrupted.
“Hello, love! What are you doing here?”
Torrin pulls her in for a hug. It pisses me off how easy it is for him to wrap his arms around her. I breathe out slowly when those green eyes hit me over his shoulder, forcing myself not to rip her away from him.
“Christmas cookie delivery from Mom. She wants to make sure you guys know to be at the house by noon on Christmas Day. We’re having an early afternoon dinner so we can lounge around for the rest of the day.”
Tor finally lets her go, and I force my clenched jaw to relax and snag another cookie from the tin.
They chat and catch up for a few minutes until Luna zips her jacket back up and yanks her hat back onto her hair, off to her next cookie delivery.
She gives me one long look over her shoulder before the door closes behind her.
I stand there looking at the door, wishing things could be different.
Longing to be someone else, someone who had more to offer a girl like her, until I realize Torrin is talking to me.
“How’s the course going? Making progress?” He juts his chin at my laptop on the table. I shove a hand through my hair and shrug.
“Doesn’t feel like I’m making much progress at all, to be honest. There’s not enough time to move through it as fast as I’d like with working so many hours. I have to keep going back over the units to make sure it sticks.”
He crosses his arms and hits me with a frustrated look. “Did you even look at the file Mrs. B dropped off for you? You could go full-time and get it done faster.”
I scoff and sit back down to keep working. “Sure, let me just sell a kidney to pay for that and my living expenses.”
He grabs a couple more cookies and brings them over, setting one beside me. “It’s called student loans, Mars. Thousands of students use them to get their education. Just look at the file.” He leaves it at that and heads upstairs.
Later that night, I toss and turn in bed.
I can’t get Luna out of my head. She’s so far out of my fucking league.
She deserves someone better than me. I’m just a loser with no family that grew up bouncing from one foster home to another.
It’ll be years before I manage to get any kind of degree at the pace I’m going.
She’ll find someone else before I have anything to offer her.
I flop back onto my bed as the cold Alberta wind blasts snow against the side of the house.
God, I want her. I want her to look at me like I’m all she’ll ever need.
I want to strip those cute dresses off her body and hear the way she moans my name when I make her come.
I want to hold her and fall asleep next to her and… fuck! I just want all of it with her.
With a groan, I roll out of bed and move to my desk, picking up my wallet to slide out the Post-it note and empty punch card that I’ve kept all these years.
I close my eyes and see that challenging look in her green eyes, the way they dared me.
I thought it was a dare for me to make a move, but maybe it was something else.
Maybe it was a challenge, a dare for me to be worthy of her.
I put the note and punch card back into my wallet, open the top drawer of the desk, and pull out the blue file Mrs. Bolton gave me last year.
I had mentioned something to her about taking online classes, and the next day she dropped this file off.
She said it was information on colleges in the province.
I sit down at the desk and flip the file open to browse through it. There’s all kinds of funding and grant information in it besides the college information. I turn on the small desk lamp and start reading in earnest. Time to start making a plan. Challenge accepted, Luna.